35 Basic Phrases You Can Use in Your Copy

With so much content on the internet, many people—myself included—struggle to feel seen and heard.

We’re afraid of being ordinary.

We’re afraid of blending in.

We’re afraid of missing out.

We’re afraid of falling behind.

We’re afraid of losing followers.

We’re afraid of being boring.

This list goes on but I think we can all agree fear is counterproductive to happiness. Fear often leads us to overthink and overstretch. To twist ourselves into shapes that don’t feel quite right because of that desire to stand out.

When fear manifests itself in our writing, we end up with words that don’t feel entirely like our own. Words that feel a little foreign and awkward, like wearing a hot pink wool sweater to the gym. This becomes problematic because when you lack confidence and connection within your writing, your readers will feel it too.

As a writer, I read a lot—of emails, blogs, websites, sales letters, transcripts, and books. It’s always noticeable when the writer is trying too hard to be unique or mimicking someone else’s voice. But…

…just because someone who’s seen great success throws the occasional F-bomb in their copy doesn’t mean you should.

…just because someone who claims to have a 6-figure business uses the phrase “GET AFTER IT!” for every call-to-action doesn’t mean you should.

Rather, you should write like *you* speak and make it easy for your readers to follow along—even if it means sometimes using basic phrases that everyone uses. In fact, many of these phrases make frequent appearances for a reason: they communicate clearly and engage eyeballs.

If you walk away from this article with one big “ah-ha!” moment, let it be this: concise writing that clearly communicates what you want your reader to know makes the biggest impact.

You don’t need to force or fake your writing style. You don’t need a huge vocabulary or perfect grammar. You just need to tap into your own voice and set a clear goal for your copy. Simplicity is the most captivating writing style.

In the words of Stephen King: “One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you’re maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones … Make yourself a solemn promise right now that you’ll never use ‘emolument’ when you mean ‘tip.’” ―Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Mr. King is talking about fiction writing but his advice holds true for copywriting. So before you whip out the thesaurus, consider using one of these 35 tried-and-true copywriting words that work to sell your anything.